1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to user interfaces. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods for presenting and accessing content on user interface display screens.
2. Description of the Related Art
As portable electronic devices become more sophisticated they may include many services including, but not limited to, playing music, playing videos, making and receiving telephone calls or sending and receiving emails. These services ideally are presented to the user in a form that is simple and efficient to use, while remaining visually attractive.
Displays for portable devices are often quite limited due to their emphasis on portability. Some portable digital entertainment devices may be used to carry music, photographs, video, electronic books, and other types of media. To be useful as a portable device they must be small, which in turn limits the size of screen they may use. The screen is often used to enable user interaction with the device, for example, to select the next item to view or hear. While the size of screen is limited the storage in the device continues to increase. A typical device may store thousands of songs, which makes finding a specific one difficult and time consuming.
A linear scrolling list is a common method of presenting options to a user. The list may be scrolled in either one dimension, most commonly vertically but on some devices horizontally, or in two dimensions. The items in the list may be represented by text, image, or a combination of both; the representation is referred to herein as the item's icon. The user typically scrolls the list 102 using buttons 104 on the device until the desired item is highlighted 106, then selects it by pressing another button. FIG. 1 shows such an example of a user interface 100.
As can be seen the linear list successfully provides a means for the user to interact with the device, but it can be slow to use, requiring several steps to scroll to and then separately select the desired item.
In some cases touch screens are deployed in electronic devices to reduce the number of steps taken to select an item from a list. A touch screen combines the display of information with the ability to select it by touching anywhere on the screen. The coordinate of the point touched is used to determine the icon selected, hence one item from a group may be selected without scrolling, provided it is visible on the screen.
It is useful to have as many icons visible on the screen as possible to reduce the need to scroll the list, but this must be balanced by the visibility of the icon. If the items are made small many of them will fit on the screen but they become more difficult to recognize and mistakes may be made. Making mistakes that must be corrected reduces the efficiency of the user interface.
A user interface must be simple for novices but efficient for experienced users. A linear list has to find a compromise between large icons that are easily identified by novices, and small icons that give direct access to more choices for experienced users. Similarly, users' eyesight will vary and some may have trouble seeing small icons.
As can be seen from the above, it is desirable to provide a user interface that is simple to use for a beginner, efficient for experienced users, and visually attractive.